THE DAIRYING INDUSTRY.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLVI, Issue XLVI, 3 July 1911, Page 7

THE DAIRYING INDUSTRY.

ADDRESS BY DAIRY COMMrsSJONEK. HOME SEPARATION AND COW TESTIS U. During an address ,to dairy farmers at Dargaville the other c".ay the Dairy Commissioner, Mr P. Cuddie, touched on two very important phases of the business, one. homeseparation, being a burning question in the more out-of-the-way districts. No one well acquainted with dairying would be foolish enough to contend, remarked the 'Commissioner, that it is impossible to make .good butter from cream that has been skimmed. 0 n the farm. While that is true, there are one or two phases of ibis form of dairying that are worthy of the most earnest consideration by tbose who are engaged in it. Tt i". a regrettable fact that the quality of a good deal of the butter made on the gathered ere am system is of .poor quality. Much of it unfortunately does not compare favourably with that made at the factories where the whole milk is received. When it reaches the market, it is frequently noticed that some of this butter ha* not ke[nt well. During .my visit to London some time ago I had the op" portunity of examining a great many of the) brands of home separated factory butter, n'ont-r with a number of *he men in who are recognised as expert of butler. Thoir verdict confirmed my own judgment and experience of the keeping quality of this class of butter, and we see the same faults in evidence a~£ the grading stores almost daily. Nevertheless frood keeping butteir can be. and rs being, made from collected cream at osme of the factories, and there is no valid reason why the whole of this butter should not be up to the standard required. One of .the r'.iin causes of the faults in the butter is f he holding of the cream too Ion £f at the farms before it is despatched .to the factory. No' factory manager however skilful, can make the- best butter from cream that is held on the average farm f-cr two or three days. There may be exceptional lots of cream that have- been specially cared for that would give fair results, although these are seldom met with. I Em free to admit that there are a few cream smppliors here and there in the more isolated districts to whom it would be something of a hardship if they compelled to send their ere*am.to the factorue.? every day. but as a general rule the dairy farmers could comply with this provision, and it would ultimately be to their own advantage and profit to d 0 so. Many of the farmers througkout the Dominion are purchasing cream separators, and a very rapid extension of tbei home separation system is going to take place, and if ' the cream is going to reach th e factories every second day, or twice weekly, as it now does in some districts, -a greiat blow will be struck; at the New Zealand dairy industry. The quality will go down and with it the price" It is clearly the' duty of factory directors to discourage the delivery of cream less often than daily, at all .eivents during the summer months. Butter made from cream delivered on alternate days, or twice a week, has been selling for more than its intrinsic value owing to itr. beimo- New Zealand'butter, but if a much larger proportion of this <'las s of butter is sent Home the general standard of 'the Dominion's nutiput wiM be lowered and prices wi'ST fall accordingly. It .is therefore to the interest of every farmer to keep up the quality of the output from his factory by supplying the best eream he can daily. UUVV xji.» - x - ijNU. [ have now come (said Mr Cuddie) to a very important recent deyelopaient of "dairying in the Dominion. I allude to the testing of individual cows in the herd. In Denmark cooperative cow-testing associations were started in 3 895, and so successful were their efforts that now there, are! ov-r five hundfred associations in. that country dealing with 190.000 cows.-and in five .years the average production of milk a head was raised one thousand poinds. Following on these lines an association was started ut Dalefield last season and. three more this .season, viz., in Stratford, KauDokonui and" -Cambridge. In order to encourage the movement the. department found the te&tin.g opera- • f-oi:. the chemicals and tlve glassware, while the factory provided testing mainline and steam. The farmer found the composite bottles, t>ox and spring balance. Tasts and weights aT« taken for two days once a month and the returns per cow are worked out by the department, wn-o are supplied with the weights by the farmer. The .records of these tests Are very interesting. The difference between the best and worst herds up to the eud of February last at Dalafield was £2 7s 9d a head. Stratford £3 Is 3d a head, £3 18s a hoad Cambridge £3 Is 3d; while thy " difference between the bes.t and worst animals- in one heird was £6 10s The value 0 f a cow is the profit over and above her keep', and assuming a cow costs in labour and food £4 a year, it is easy to estimate the respective profits on different cows when the annual production of butter fait is known. In the four districts I have named dairying 'has been carried on for -many years, and a good deal of culling has taken place. If then. there is this-'great difference in the returns from /individual cows in these places, I think I am right in as-

suming lh'a.j. (here would be a -considerably bigger difference in a district like this where dairying is a new industry The cost, to the* farmer of providing the .necessary bnttle s run-; into about 0d a head, and the total cost of operating in the. districts where the associations are at present workinir is about 3s a head per annum, which would, of course, increases if the number of eow-s was reduced. Having successfully started these associations- as an object lesson, it. ns not the intention of the department 'o continue operating them, but where new as ociations are' formed a man will always be sent, on request, to inaugurate the system and to instruct the farmers how to take the tests. I consider that a n association could be started with a guarantee of from six to eight hundred' cows, but in .this case the cost a head would be probablv from 4s to iis. One man could do all the testing and work out all the records, and .if the dairy factory provided the steam and testing machine chemicals would be the only other expense. Before starting the testing at Dalefield all the farmcVr-s were asked to pick out what they considered their best eight cows iu order of '.merit, and after the season was over it was found that net in one instance had they been successful in choosing the best eight. In one eas-ei a cow giving over 3001b of butter-fat was not included 'at all, and in another the best cow was placed eighth, narrowly escaptin.g not being listed at alii. This proves that the judgment of the farmer is not always reliable, and that whero such wonderful improvements have been made through .systematic testing tt will pav farmers handsomely to start an association anywhere where a sufficient number of cows are available.